Deoband

This article questions the often-assumed centrality of Saudi Arabia for the development of anti-Shi‘i sectarianism in Pakistan. I argue that those groups and individuals who have been most vocal about the Shi‘i ‘threat’ since the 1980s lacked (and continue to lack) any strong lineages with the Kingdom. Instead, their local polemics in Urdu foregrounded Pakistan as a political idea and global promise for Islam. This status of Pakistan’s self-view was acutely threatened by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent establishment of a religious state under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini. Consequently, Pakistani sectarian scholars transcended earlier Salafi-inspired arguments and tried to render Sunni Islam ‘fit’ to compete with powerful Shi‘i symbols. In doing so, they displayed a remarkable willingness to appropriate and rework Shi‘i concepts, something that is far from the mind of Saudi clerics.

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bup/gd/2019/00000009/00000004/art00009#

The book is a significantly enlarged version of Tareen’s doctoral dissertation ‘The Limits of Tradition: Competing Logics of Authenticity in South Asian Islam’ at Duke University from 2012. Tareen focuses on key aspects of two 19th century debates in Northern India: i) during the first decades of the 19th century between Fazl-i Ḥaqq Khayrābādī (1796-1861) and Shāh Ismāʿīl (1779-1831) on intercession, and ii) in the last decades of the 19th century between Ashraf ʿAlī Thānvī (1863-1943) and Aḥmad Razā Khān (1856-1921) on whether the Prophet had knowledge of the hidden.

Madrasahs In Pakistan [Untill: 2005], Author: Sultan Ali, Madrasah Reforms and State Power in Pakistan, Taxila Studies of Asian Civilizations,  Madrasa, Madrasah, Islamic Schools, Islamic Sciences Schools, Islamic Madrasah, Islamic Madrasa, Alhassanain​, Alhassanain.org, Al-hassanain Network, Alhassanain Hassanain​, www.alhassanain.org/english, Pakistan, Deobandi, Dar ul Olom,
http://alhassanain.org/english/?com=book&id=841

Authentic Islamic information on various topics with reference to the Quran and Hadith

Comprehensive 16 Speeches in English with duration of 15-25 minuets.

A useful book for students, teachers and general Muslims alike.

Contents of ISLAMIC SPEECHES – PART ONE
* How To Make Your Speech More Effective  (1) An Introduction To Islam (2) The Holy Qur’an (3) Life Of The Prophet (pbuh) (4) Salah –Prayer (5) Sawm - Fast (6) Zakah – Alms (7) Hajj – Pilgrimage (8) Eid Al-Fitr (9) Eid Al-Adha (10) Virtues Of Jumu’ah (11) Dawah And Tabligh (12) Importance Of English For Dawah (13) Islam And Science (14) Islam And Education (15) Morals In Islam (16) Women’s Rights: Islam Versus West (17) Hijab In Islam (18) Rights Of Parents (19) Unity And Brotherhood In Islam (20) Equality And Justice In Islam (21) Islam And Terrorism (22) Tolerance In Islam (23) Muslims And India’s Freedom Struggle (24) Darul Uloom Deoband (00) Words And Meanings

Contents of ISLAMIC SPEECHES – PART TWO
(25) Islam: The Universal Religion (26) Finality Of Prophethood (27) Virtues Of Ramadan (28) Eid Al-Fitr: Virtues And Rulings (29) Virtues Of Dhu Al-Hijjah (30) Charity And Social Service In Islam (31) What Is Jihad? (32) Cleanliness In Islam (33) Backbiting And Slandering (34) Good Conduct With Relatives (35) Husband And Wife Relations (36) Dowry: A Heinous Social Crime (37) Tragedy Of Suicide (38) Valentine’s Day Celebration (39) India Our Homeland (40) Our Republic Day (00) Words And Meanings

South Asia’s encounter with Western colonialism preceded that of the Arab world, arguably rendering it more sensitive to the intellectual challenges implicit in political subjugation. Consequently, scholars of South Asian Islam, such as Francis Robinson, have highlighted its role historically more as an exporter than as an importer of reformist ideas, particularly during the decades of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The subject of this book, Shaykh Abu al-Hasan Ali Nadwi (1915–99), exemplifies both these tendencies through his life and works. First, he confronts head-on the challenges posed to Muslim civilization by Western cultural and political hegemony. Second, through a corpus of eloquent and passionate Arabic publications and frequent lecture tours abroad, he speaks to the trauma of a post-colonial Arab world still reeling with the shock of its inglorious place in the new global political order.

FULL BOOK REVIEW CAN BE ACCESSED HERE: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/h4ra9XG7a9gDYEs8Gn5A/full

Gugler, Thomas K.:
Mission Medina.
Da'wat-e Islami und Tablighi Jama'at
Kultur, Recht und Politik in muslimischen Gesellschaften, 18
2011. 348 S. m. 63 Farbabb. - 155 x 230 mm. Kartoniert
ISBN 978-3-89913-793-4

Thomas K. Gugler beleuchtet das Phänomen des Post- islamismus anhand zweier Missionsbewegungen aus Südasien. Die stark sufisch geprägte Daʿwat-e Islāmī wurde als Gegen-bewegung zur Deobandi-nahen Tablīġī Ǧamāʿat gegründet und ist mittlerweile eine der größten transnationalen religiösen Bewegungen aus Pakistan. Die Konkurrenzdynamik zwischen beiden Organisationen wirft zahlreiche Fragen zu modernen religiösen Wandlungsprozessen auf den zunehmend deregulierten Religionsmärkten auf. Netzwerke von Symbolen, Mythen und Ritualen religiöser Traditionen scheinen sich als komplexe adaptive Systeme in ihren Entwicklungsprozessen zunehmend nach Regeln der Ressourcenmaximierung durch milieuübergreifende Ideenkommunikation gegenseitig zu beeinflussen und kompetitiv weiterzuentwickeln. Sunna wird dabei zu einem normativen System der Lebensführung, das insbesondere jüngere Muslime befähigt, konfessions-spezifisches Sozialkapital zu generieren. Außerdem wird aufgezeigt, inwieweit die frömmigkeitspolitischen Projekte der jungen Neofundamentalisten den alten Islamisten das Wasser abgraben.

Reviewed in Islam and Civilisational Renewal 3(3)(2012): 548-550 by Christoph Marcinkowski,
http://www.iais.org.my/icr/index.php/icr/article/view/41/40
and in Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 20(1) (2012): 141-142 by Till Mostowlansky
and in DAVO 35 (2013): 81-82 by Philipp Bruckmayr
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B94aZaoMKEDEYW41OUxIMEpXVEk/edit?usp=sharing
and in Asien 127(2013): 106-108 by Max Stille
and in ZDMG 164(2) (2014): 553-556 by Nadja-Christina Schneider
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B94aZaoMKEDETkthZDhfblhHMUk/view?usp=sharing
and in Orientalische Literaturzeitung 110(1) (2015): 71-74 by Stephan Popp

The Islamic Missionary Movements Tablīghī Jamāʿat, Daʿwat-e Islāmī, and Sunnī Daʿwat-e Islāmī share, in varying degrees, a Sufi background, and preach a peaceful Islam. At the same time terrorists involved in the bombings in Europe since 2004 regularly visited mosques associated with these movements, especially the Tablīghī Jamāʿat. The “Islamic project” of the three movements is the “Sunnaization” - that is, the reshaping and reconstruction - of the daily routine and the individual markers of identity based on the examples of the Prophet and the Salaf as portrayed in the Hadith literature. This so-called “apolitical” Sunnaization can be understood as the privatization or individualization of political re-Islamization.

The Deoband Movement was organized by the orthodox section among the Muslim ulema as a revivalist movement with the twin objectives of propagating pure teachings of the Quran and Hadis among Muslims and keeping alive the spirit of jihad against the foreign rulers.

As it is the duty of Muslim scholars or ulama to preserve and spread the teachings of Islam, they have always carried out this responsibility. Further, they have also presented the best possible argument in favour of Islam if there was any criticism against it. As English has become the most preferred language for exchange of ideas it is natural that the ulama utilize this language for a wider approach to public. It was for facilitating the learning of English to ulama that Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre was established in Delhi some three decades ago. The experiment was successful and it was taken as a role model. As a result, today over a dozen such institutes have been busy imparting English to ulama. This paper analyses the methodology of teaching English for the specific purpose of preaching Islam. It especially focuses on finding out the scopes for improvement so that those qualifying for the Diploma in English Language & Literature offered by these institutes have higher proficiency in English and better training for propagating the message of Islam.

The importance of hadith as the basis of Islamic law, theology and ethics cannot be underestimated. Alongside the Quran it constitutes the second source for Islamic shariah and ones practice. While no Muslim will challenge the authority of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) as many have differing views with regards to ascertaining exactly what the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said and did. This difference is a consequence of the diverse methodologies employed in establishing the normative practices of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The spectrum of ideas and opinions encompass the entire scope of thought from outright rejection of hadith to a highly literal reading of it. This translation provides yet another approach to understanding hadith. The translated text is the introduction to a large multi-volume work in Arabic called I'la as-Sunan. The original work was a response to the ahle hadith allegation that the school of Imam Abu Hanifah is deprived of hadith.

In this introduction, the author pens his methodology for writing the I'la as-Sunan. The author endeavours to deconstruct the false understanding that hadith science is absolute and fixed. He argues that since the science of hadith is not prescriptive in the shariah, no one group can lay claim to it or claim a universal understanding of it. This book will be of interest to students who have a penchant for abstract theories and methods and to the advanced students of hadith and Islamic thoughts.

About the Author

Mawlana Zafar Ahmad al-Uthmani, the illustrious nephew of Hakim al-Ummah Mawlana Ashraf Ali at-Thanawi was born on 13 Rabi al-Awwal 1310/1892. Allah bestowed him with a remarkable memory and at a tender age he memorised the Holy Quran. From the age of seven he was studying mathematics, Persian and Urdu with Mawlana Yasin, the father of Mufti Shafi. He studied the Islamic sciences under various teachers including his maternal uncle Hakim al-Ummah in both Thana Bhawan as well as Kanpur. After receiving license in the sacred and rational sciences, he went to the Islamic seminary Mazahir Ulum and became a student of the hadith master and Gnostic Mawlana Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri. He received his license to teach hadith at the young age of 18. He then became a professor of Islamic sciences in various institutions including his alma mater Mazahir Ulum and Imdad al-Ulum in Thana Bhawan. He is the author of many books on the sacred sciences of which the I'la as-Sunan is his magnum opus.

English translation by Abdussamad Clarke and Aisha Bewley

The chapter talks about two controversial episodes of Muslim women - Sania Mirza and Nahid Afrin against whom media played a major role in selective coverage of alleged fatwas issued against them.
The chapter explains how the media exposes people to misinformation about fatwas by
making generalized opinion, being favorably biased and
targeting specific fatwas creating a hostile opinion about them.
The consequences of the selective media coverage of fatwas
related to Muslim women results in polarized public opinion
about Muslims and Islam. The discourse of fatwa is not an
isolated phenomenon but is a comprehensive process involving
hermeneutical exercise. The infamous publicity
it gives to fatwa related to women has resulted in the various fatwa
controversies.

This chapter explores developments in the practice of hadith studies among Muslims in the past two centuries. It does not focus on Muslim debates on questions of authenticity, probity in law and theology, or even as sources of history, as scholarship has taken up some of these questions (D. Brown 1999; J. Brown 2007, 300–333; J. Brown 2009, 240–268; Chapter 16 of this volume). Rather, this chapter explores developments related to what Muslim students of hadith actually do when they teach, study, or spe-cialize in hadith. What institutions, if any, are available to them? What does the course of study look like, and what are some of the key teaching texts used? Who are some of the authorities who have shaped the study of hadith today? What discursive develop-ments among Muslims have contributed to the foregrounding of hadith? And how have technological advances, in print and computers, shaped the study of hadith?This chapter will focus on three modes of hadith study that Muslims engage in that, given the constraints of space, serve somewhat as ideal types. The first of the three modes is in the dawrat al-hadith in madrasas, which trace their intellectual pedigree to the Dar al-Ulum madrasa in Deoband, India. The dawrat al-hadith (“year of hadith”) is the capstone year for madrasa students during which the Six Books of the Sunni canon are covered. The institution of the dawrat al-hadith has resulted in the production of numerous commentaries, both in Arabic and in Urdu, continuing premodern traditions of commentary while also vernacularizing hadith studies. This is arguably one of the most popular ways of systematically studying the Sunni canon, given the spread of Deobandi madrasas throughout South Asia and South Asian diaspora communities, particularly in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The second mode is concomitant with the emergence of print in the Arab world and the concern for
the production of critical editions of Islamic textual sources from manuscripts (
tahqiq al-makhtutat). Some of the foremost editors and publishers of Islamic texts in the first half of the twentieth century were affiliated with Salafism and were concerned with the authentication of hadith references, a process known as takhrij. Takhrıj entailed the studying of the isnad  and matn of hadiths and providing a ruling on their probity. Along with the critical edition of manuscripts, takhrij became an important skill taught in modern universities in the Arab world. Finally, in the last decades of the twentieth century (and seemingly in reaction to Salafi approaches to hadith), scholars of hadith began to re‐center the interpersonal transmission of hadith and the authority that pos-sessing a license (ijaza) from a hadith master conferred. As a result, a greater emphasis was placed on direct narration from hadith masters through audition (sama) of hadith and attaining licenses.Each of these three modes of hadith study have their precedents in premodern hadith culture, but given developments in Muslim societies since the nineteenth century, the emergence of new discourses, and new technologies that democratized access to hadith, some of these practices have received greater focus today than they might have had previously. The modes of hadith study described here are not mutually exclusive and students of hadith often embark upon another mode of hadith study after completing one.

ABSTRACT
The Muslim rule in India can be categorised into the following stages; (1) from the era of Caliphate up to Arab Governors in Sind i.e. 645 to 856, (2) Ghaznavid rule in northern India from 1004 to 1186, (3) Delhi Sultanate from 1206 to 1526 and finally (4) Mughal Empire from 1526 to 1857.

It was Delhi Sultanate that carried the flag of Islam from western and northern sides into central and eastern and southern India. It established strong Muslim rule in Delhi and united several parts of the country under its control. During Delhi Sultanate period, several dynasties ruled India one after another: (1) Mamlook (Slave) Dynsty from 1206 to 1290, (2) Khilji Dynasty from 1290 to 1320, (3) Tughlaq Dynasty from 1320 to 1414, Sayyids Dynasty from 1414 from 1451 and lastly Lodhi Dynasty from 1451 to 1526. Besides, there were regional Muslim states and kingdoms at occasions in southern, central, western and eastern India during the Sultanate period.

The period of Delhi Sultanate was a bright era of Indian history which witnessed revolutionary changes in education, sciences, architecture, fine arts, administration etc. The Islamic sciences, especially, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) flourished and expanded during this period. Fiqh had central position among all Islamic sciences and being scholar of fiqh was the zenith of academic excellence. The rulers adhered to Hanafi Fiqh and thus the administration of Delhi Sultanate was based on Hanafi Fiqh. They established madrasas where Hanafi Fiqh was taught. They sponsored ulama, qadhis and scholars of fiqh who therefore were encouraged to produce great works on Hanafi Fiqh like Al-Fatawa al-Ghiyasia, Fawayid Ferozshahi, Fatawa Qarakhani besides other fatwa and fiqh literatures. The encyclopedia of Hanafi Fiqh, Fatawa Tatarkhania, is a matchless legacy left behind by Delhi Sultanate. There were numerous great scholars of fiqh during the Sultanate period who contributed greatly to the promotion of Hanafi Fiqh in India.

The Tablighi Jama'at (TJ) is widely regarded as the largest movement of grassroots Islamic revival in the world yet remains significantly under-researched. This thesis examines the British branch of the movement based on sustained ethnographic fieldwork conducted over 18 months. Intensive participant observation was combined with 59 semi-structured interviews to present a detailed typology and topography of the movement's organisational structure in Britain. Further, the issue of intergenerational transmission is explored – based on an analysis of the cultural identity markers of language, clothing and food – with clear shifts identified between the first-generation 'Old Guard' and the British-born 'Avant-Garde.' The thesis argues that TJ should best be characterised as a movement in transition located within broader processes of indigenisation operative within British Islam more generally.

Theoretically, the thesis augments Berger and Luckmann's sociology of knowledge with insights derived from Bhaskar’s critical realism to propose the twin 'generative mechanisms' of secularity and spirituality from which empirically accessible social phenomena emerge. These are used to anatomise the process of 'intra-religious conversion' which emerges as a key motif of contemporary TJ experience. Turner's concept of liminality and Schutz's phenomenology of consciousness are further deployed to examine ritual and semantic dimensions of conversion that see the neophyte’s attachment to religion transition from a nominal to a passionate state. Generic theories in the sociology of religion are also consulted to explore issues of retention and post-conversion strategies of commitment-maintenance.

Finally, utilising insights from Peter Berger’s vast oeuvre, the thesis explores the intersection of 'Islamic Revival' with secularisation theory in Europe. It argues that, in the context of contemporary ‘Eurosecularity,’ the willed and conscious exercise of agency in ways which publicly affirm faith is intrinsically imbued with a disconcerting ‘debunking’ potential for those who have unthinkingly imbibed into interior consciousness the taken-for-granted suppositions of a secular nomos.

Only a limited portion of the existing analysis regarding the Afghan Taliban considers the
role ideas have played within the movement. In attempting to deepen our understanding, I consider
the origins and evolution of the Taliban leadership’s political discourse. To explain the intellectual
environment from within which the Taliban emerged, I outline some of the ideological and
organisational continuities we can establish between the Taliban leadership and its religio-political
predecessors. Drawing on Taliban documents, interviews, and autobiographical material produced by
members of the movement I then discuss the evolution of some of the key themes within the Taliban's
own political discourse from its time in power. I argue that the clerical exclusivity of Taliban rule; the
top-down, authoritarian nature of their 'reform' agenda; and their appropriation – at points – of a
distinctly modern, statist discourse all help explain why the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate was – in the end
– a failure. I conclude by suggesting that while there are some signs of self-criticism within the
Taliban leadership, there has been no fundamental shift in their political discourse since 2001, and that
we should not expect rapid change even as pressure builds on the movement to evolve.

Darul Uloom Deoband, established in India in 1866, is renowned the world over for its religious, cultural, historical and educational significance. It is considered the mother of Islamic seminaries and traditional madrasas in the Indian subcontinent and other parts of the world. The educational and reform movement led by Darul Uloom and other madrasas was later transformed into a School of Thought and now it has great influence over Muslims in different part of the world including South Africa.
South Africa is home to nearly one million Muslims and most of them originally belong to the Indian subcontinent. The majority of the South African Muslims of the Indian origin follows Deobadni School of thought. They are living in South Africa in peace and have proved to be law-abiding citizens as well as they enjoy freedom to practice their religion, to build mosques and madrasas.
This is an interesting topic of research how these Muslim migrants reached South Africa and what they have contributed to South Africa as well as to the Muslim world.
In my paper I wish to explore the historical roots of the Deobandi Muslims in South Africa along with tracing their theological affiliation to Deoband school. As naturally the paper will cover the contributions of Deobandi Muslims in South Africa in preaching the true message of Islam, imparting Islamic education, building mosques and madrasas, extending humanitarian and social services and setting one of the best example of coexistence and peaceful living along with introducing the Islamic heritage in South Africa and surrounding African countries. In this regard, the paper shall briefly contain the accounts of great Deobandi Muslim personalities and outstanding Deobandi institutions in the country

This paper deals with the Sufi shaykh Haji Imdad Allah Muhajir Makki's (1817-1899) efforts for conciliation of different strands of Muslim religious thought in the late nineteenth century with particular reference to his main work on this theme-a short treatise titled Faisalah-i Haft Mas'alah (literally: A Resolution of the Seven Controversies). After an exposition of his hermeneutics of conciliation, it is opined that his teachings in this regard bear universal significance, and thus these can be helpful for our times.

For One-Day-International Seminar
On Maulana Muhammad Ali Mungeri: Life and Achievements
(December, 8, 2019, |Sunday)
Organized by: Rahmani Foundation
Belan Bazar, Munger, Bihar 811201

Hadhrat Maulana Syed Muhammad Ali Mungeri (1846-1927) was the stalwart and genius personality of British India who was not only prominent spiritual guide of his age, rather a prolific writer, eminent educationist and great warrior of Islam. Maulana Mungeri possessed many distinct qualities and served in various fields. On one hand, he was great spiritual mentor of scores of Muslims from across the country, while on the other hand he was the head of the Nadwatul Ulama that founded Darul Uloom in Lucknow, which aimed at maintaining balance between the old traditional and the modern education systems. Along with preaching and propagating Islam through guiding people towards the straight path of Islam, he fulfilled duties as a warrior of Islam and defended Islam against the Christian missionary onslaught as well as refuted Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (Punjab) who claimed to be prophet. As he fought on these fronts as with his tongue and action, he picked up pen also and authored scores of books and treatises on various subjects spanning from religion, theology, comparative study of religions to deviant sects and thoughts.

It is something of a truism that the Quran’s narrative defies modern texts’ linear chronology demarcated by definitive beginnings, middles, and ends. Quranic studies specialists have expended considerable effort investigating its narratology, foreign vocabulary, conception of ethics, and transmission history.  However, an exploration of time and temporality within the Quran remains a minor concern in the field. To address this lacuna, I investigate how one twentieth-century South Asian religious scholar (alim) Manazir Ahsan Gilani (d.1956) grappled with time and temporality in the Companions of the Cave (Ashab al-Kahf) story of Chapter 18 of the Quran, “The Cave” (Surat al-Kahf).
I make a modest contribution to Quranic studies, South Asian Islamic intellectual history, and post-colonial studies by comparing Gilani’s Quranic exegesis (Tafsir) on this chapter (surah) with his classical and modern Middle Eastern counterparts.

The major problem of Pakistan since its formation is huge difference among religious conservatism and liberalism. Both perceive the formation of Pakistan according to their views but, this rivalry is not new. During British India, such ideologies were working against each other and Muslim society had been divided into two schools of thought: the Aligarh and the Deoband. Aligarh School of thought motivated Indian Muslims regarding getting western education as solution of their current socio-political problems, while Deoband School of Thought found this solution in religious education. This article highlights the difference among ideologies and practices of both the school of thoughts with special reference to Pakistan, and solution of this difference according to the theories of Sir Syed and Allama Iqbal. Both the scholars found the reason of Muslims backwardness is far from the modern education. If Sir Syed gave the concept of rationalism in religion for the purpose of getting rid off from orthodox and rigid behavior, Allama Iqbal focued upon the need of ijtehad and reconstruction of religious thoughts that is a solution of all the modern issues and problems. Both the point of views are discussed in this article.

Madrasa Education: Its Strength and Weakness is a brilliant work done on the subject. As the book deals with the history of madrasas through ages it discusses the burning issues like fundamentalism, terrorism, syllabus and curricula of madras, the author being a madras product himself was duly able to present the reality. This is, undoubtedly, a tremendous effort of the young author that beckons a brighter future for him. The book shall stand out be a new kind of vision throwing light on madrasas from a different angle.

Feb. 2018. Introduction to one of the world's largest da'wa/tabligh movements, with annotated citations to scholarly work on the TJ. Published in Oxford Bibliographies in Islamic Studies: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0250.xml?rskey=Ny5Arc&result=182

Scholars of the TJ and of South Asian Islam: Please send me any citations I might have missed! Oxford Bibliographies will allow me to update this article from time to time.

"Over roughly the past four decades, an important stream of scholarship on Islam in South Asia has highlighted the denominational variations and contestations, as well as the creativity and vitality, of 'ulamā' and 'ulamā'-cum-Sufi-led South Asian reform movements in the conditions of colonial and post-colonial modernity...  SherAli Tareen's Defending Muḥammad in Modernity constitutes both a major contribution to this stream of scholarship and a fruitful disruption of some of the ruts of analysis this stream has fallen into..."  http://irigs.iiu.edu.pk:64447/ojs/index.php/islamicstudies/article/view/2188/916

In this paper, I discuss traditionalist approaches to Islamic legal reform in the modern period through an analysis of a legal verdict (fatwā) authored by Ashraf ʿAlī al- Thānawī (d. 1943), a leading scholar of the conservative Deobandī Sunnī school, on the issue of women’s political leadership. Employing the hermeneutical tools of classical legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh), al-Thānawī reinterprets a prophetic tradition that pre-modern jurists cited to prohibit women from being appointed heads of state by arguing that such a prohibition was specific to autocratic forms of political rule. In permitting women to serve as heads of state, al-Thānawī diverges from the classical doctrine of the four Sunnī legal schools and broadens the scope for female participation in the political sphere. I seek to detail the technical aspects of al-Thānawī’s legal verdict in order to shed light on the potential reform mechanisms present in classical legal theory and the manner in which an influential jurist dedicated to the institution of taqlīd utilized them to forward a novel reading of the primary source texts of Islam. I will further situate the legal verdict of al-Thānawī within the broader context of his intellectual thought and the historical circumstances of British India in order to identify the reasons for his authoring such a legal verdict. This paper will then conclude by discussing the reception of al-Thānawī’s legal verdict within both the religious and political establishments in the Subcontinent where specific attention will be drawn to the idea of “New Legal Formalism” (NLF), which identifies the role of legal theory as a rhetorical force that helps garner assent for opinions that are dictated primarily by ideological or practical considerations.

Dar al-‘ulums have been successful in producing ‘uluma who have
contributed immensely to the development of the Muslim community
in Britain. However, the changing socio-political climate in the country
has meant that the roles and responsibilities of dar al-‘ulum graduates in
the wider society have become subject to increasing scrutiny. Today, the
expectations and demands of the religious leadership are increasingly
being put under pressure.

Over the years, dar al-‘ulum in Britain largely based their teaching
curriculum on dars-i nizami. However, with some amendments and
innovative experiments, some of the madrasas in Britain have been able
to set standards relating to learning outcomes, assessment objectives
and essential skills, etc. Nonetheless, those standards were/are applied
exclusively to their own madrasa/dar al-‘ulum, and it seems that there is
very little evidence of a coherent standard expected from a graduate.

A large number of madrasa measure their success and failure relating
to teaching and its outcomes on the basis of how much they have been
able to impart ‘useful’ knowledge. ‘Useful’ means knowledge that leads
to piety, spirituality and direction, set against ‘harmful’ knowledge, which means knowledge that leads to irreligious and immoral behaviour. It is difficult to set a ‘benchmark’ of such ‘knowledge’. However, some of the madrasas have started their own evaluation tests and have set certain levels of standards to measure students’ academic development, but these are few and far between.

. Questions that arise therefore are:
1. Is there a need to set up a subject benchmark statement that clearly
describes the nature of study and academic standards expected of
madrasa graduates? [In order to provide a picture of what graduates
of a madrasa might reasonably be expected to know, do and
understand at the end of their studies].​
2. Who should be involved in designing such a benchmark statement?
3. Who should manage the standard of benchmark, and how?

In this article, two threads of scholarship on the relationship of what shall
be called here the ‘Deoband project’ and politics are negotiated. Both
these threads frame this relationship in absolute terms: one considers
Deoband as a politically neutral yet rather homogeneous ‘movement’ for
the reform of religious beliefs and practices, while the other cast it in a
similar monolithic fashion as an anti-colonial champion of social justice.
Against this mutual exclusiveness, it is argued here that a revised understanding
of what ‘Deoband’ constitutes and stands for will help to show
that, although it did not often make a politics explicit, embedded in a
genealogy of the ‘Deoband project’ as a phenomenon is an activist
iteration of Sufism, one that developed in dialogue between classes in
the stratified semi-urban milieus of the imperial heartland around
Deoband, and South Asian rural peripheries. In the early twentieth
century, this conversation developed into what is idealtypically framed
here as ‘Islamic Pietism’.
All this is argued through a survey of the literature surrounding one of
Deoband’s least-documented, yet possibly most famous, scholars:
Maḥmūd al-Ḥasan, commonly known as ‘Shaykh al-Hind’. In narrating
‘Islamic Pietism’ across Maḥmūd al-Ḥasan’s life, but also his milieu and
the careers of his compatriots, not only a major gap in the historical
research of contemporary South Asian Islam is addressed. More so, it is
highlighted how even renowned individual actors were constituted by
cross-class and multi-scalar networks of thought and agency – almost as
much as they disproportionately transformed them.

This article takes the ‘Silk Letters Conspiracy’, a complex, transnational scheme uncovered by British colonial officials in 1916, as the starting point for a discussion on the writing of revolutionary histories in post-colonial India. It considers the generally vexed position of Muslims in histories of early twentieth-century anti-colonialism and the lengths to which some scholars, particularly those associated with the Dar al-ʿUlum Deoband seminary in northern India, have gone in order to create a counter-narrative of Muslim revolutionary anti-colonialism that was fully in keeping with the broader nationalist struggle. Later, the paper speculates on whether other historical lives, such as that of Abul Kalam Azad, one of the most high-profile Muslims in the leadership of the Indian National Congress in the 1940s and 1950s, could also be so re-inscribed and made part of the revolutionary script of the 1910s, and to what end this might be done. Throughout, this article meditates on the problematic nature of testimony, memory and the colonial archive.

In the absence of clear-cut guidance from the primary sources of the shari‘a, how do Muslim scholars derive a workable religious praxis in changing circumstances and which authorities do they invoke in the process? This article explores possible answers to these questions by conducting a detailed analysis of a debate between two groups of Deobandi scholars in Britain over establishing the correct time for the commencement of morning (Fajr) and the onset of fasting for Ramadan. I argue that besides the primary sources, these Deobandi scholars invoke alternate forms of extra-scriptural authority such as the weight of precedence deriving from the akabir (elders) of the Deobandi tradition, as also their reliance on modern scientific knowledge. The article highlights the complex interplay of factors which determines the way that Muslims in Britain negotiate the practice of their religion in new socio-cultural milieu and the way they attempt to incorporate these changes within the parameters of an established religious discourse.

This article argues that Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817
98) and Ashraf ‘Ali Thanvi (1863
1943) were, respectively, exemplars of what I will call the liberal critique of custom on the one hand, and the Islamic legal critique of custom on the other. I argue that a range of overlapping semantic fields in their Urdu works—‘custom’ (rasm), ‘reform’ (islah), ‘decline’ (zawal, tanazzul) and ‘nation’ or ‘moral community’ (qawm), among others—opens up new lines of inquiry in comparing Aligarh and Deoband, typically treated as incommensurable in their views, as institutions and movements. I suggest, additionally, that ‘the public’ (‘amm) was a shared frame through which they envisioned implementing their respective projects. At the imagined centre of these publics, they located a new sort of Muslim: literate, self-regulating, self-fashioning, guided by rationality (‘aql) and free, above all, of the moral and social entanglements of ‘custom’.

Maulana Mohammad Salim Qasmi had been working with AIMPLB since the Board’s inception till his last breath on 14 April, 2018. It had been 46 long years and exactly half of his entire life span; he was 92 at the time of his demise. He worked as founding member, as head of various sub-committees from time to time, and as vice president. He was selected as vice president of AIMPLB during its 14th General Session, incidentally that was too in Mumbai during 28-30 October, 1999.

His services and contributions towards the Board was unparalleled and highly remarkable. As per the records with AIMPLB headquarter in New Delhi, he attended almost all important meetings of the Board during that 46 year long time period even with poor health conditions. He was extremely dedicated and exceedingly sincere towards his responsibilities with the Board.

The response of South Asian Muslims to the British occupation of India and the socio-cultural and institutional reforms that they induced were manifold. The attempts by the British to inculcate modernism in Indian societies was taken up by the Muslims as a political and cultural challenge. Unlike the Muslim ideologues such as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-18), who launched Aligarh Movement adopting progressive and loyalist approach, the exponent Deoband Movement showed militant resistance towards British imperialism and by sticking to their religious dogmas attempted to reform the society along with orthodox lines. Yet, they afterwards modernized their educational institutions which appeared to be one of the dominant set of Islam and made seminary second largest religious educational institution in the Muslim World. This paper discusses the formation of Deoband Madrasah, its response and approach towards British imperialism and process of modernization, and its philosophy to reform the Muslim society at time when it was suffering from severe political decline. Furthermore, it gives an evaluation to their conception of composite nationalism, and adherence to coexistence of different religious communities. It also sheds light on its networking with Jamiat Ulema-e Hind and Tablighi Jamaat in the wake which Deoband appeared to be one of great set of Islam. The methodology employed to in the discourse is descriptive, analytical and critical. This undertaking establishes that Darul Ulum Deoband has not merely been an educational institution but mulita-dimensional movement which contributed a lot in provide distinct trends the Muslim society and culture in South Asian

This is a vivid and illuminating ethnographic account of an emerging force in contemporary Gambian social and religious life: the Tablīghī Jamā’at (TJ).  Through the prism of five detailed biographical narratives, Janson evokes the everyday lived experiences of TJ activists embedded in the socio-cultural matrix of the Gambia.  Her central objective is to dissect the ways in which youth, Islam and modernity – as distinct analytical concepts – intersect and coalesce in the lives of young Gambians seeking paths to piety through a contested arena in which tribal and reformist strands of Islam vie for primacy.  Sensitive yet scholarly, Janson’s presentation is laudable for the way in which her micro observations – the raw field data – are consistently sutured to broader theoretical frames and a comprehensive body of scholarship on the phenomenon of resurgent Islam in several international contexts.  What transpires is a multi-layered work of depth and texture that makes an important contribution to our understanding of the ways in which young women and men, inhabiting an ambivalent postcolonial space caught in the orbit of globalisation, appropriate and internalise religious experience.